Just follow the footprints. They'll usually provide a trail, especially when it's snowing.

That's all officers in Carnegie had to do to apprehend a 49-year-old Crafton woman who they accuse of stealing a police cruiser from the station's parking lot and driving herself to her North Emily Street home early yesterday.

Police charged Theresa E. Zygula with auto theft and driving with a suspended license.

At around 2:30 a.m., Carnegie Police Chief Jeffrey Harbin said, Zygula left a bar on North Main Street, walked across the street to the police station and knocked on the door, evidently to ask if someone could give her a ride home.

Just before she arrived, Harbin said, an officer pulled up to the station to use the restroom, leaving his cruiser running.

After knocking on the door, and not bothering to use the telephone that connects to the desk, Zygula made off with the cruiser, Harbin said.

The car was found undamaged with the keys in the ignition on North Linwood Street in Crafton.

"The officers saw some footprints and followed them to her house," said Harbin. "Officers knocked on the door and she told police that she had taken the car."